GOI/Altimo Keen on Indonesia Investment

Altimo, a subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Group, remains keen on its investment plans for Indonesia, a company official said.

"We will never give up on our plan, including the possibility of buying a mobile telecommunications operator here," Altimo local chief representative Suharto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday (28/8/07).

The company has been making it clear since last December that it wants to get into the Indonesian telecommunications market through a stake in one of the existing players, and is ready to invest up to $2 billion in total.

Suharto said that buying a stake in an existing operator would be easier than setting up a new one and starting from scratch.

"Acquiring shares on the stock market would also be difficult as the number of shares on offer is limited so that their price would rocket as soon as the market got wind of what was going on."